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Cameron's Law (Adelheid, #1)
Mia Darien | 2011
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received this book from Masquerade Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review.

This story is about a vampire who 'came out' and, along with a close friend, helped to revolutionise the paranormal movement. This was not without consequences and, as such, Sadie works away the night trying hard to grow her paranormal business.

From the very start, you are in the thick of the action and find out just how inconvenient being staked can be. Although not life-threatening (she is dead, after all) she reports it to the police and deals with a new detective who becomes the love interest. However, their romance certainly doesn't overshadow the rest of the story. In fact, for most of it, they're not dating as she is a suspect on multiple murders plus there's the whole cahooney of vampire and werewolf attacks. She doesn't really have time for romance!

Sadie is sharp, quick-witted and sarcastic - character aspects that I love in either the main male or female. Vance is the perfect foil for her and certainly can give as much as he takes. The supporting characters are all interesting in their own right but help to make the mystery part of this book more interesting.

A humorous and intriguing start to a new series. Recommended for all Paranormal Mystery Romance fans.
  
Conspiracy of Ravens (Raven Crawford #1)
Conspiracy of Ravens (Raven Crawford #1)
J.C. McKenzie | 2019 | Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
CONSPIRACY OF RAVENS is the first book in the Raven Crawford series, and we meet Raven who is half-Fae and half-shifter. She is living on a knife's edge financially due to her ex-boyfriend and is too proud to ask for help. Instead, she gives up on her dreams and works at a dead-end job.

Her life changes when her twin disappears and two dark Fae Lords enter her life. Her mother has always warned her away from the Underworld, although she doesn't really know why. This means she has a woeful lack of knowledge where this is concerned, which doesn't help when she figures out her brother's disappearance and the appearance of those two are linked.

This was a great fantasy book with plenty of detail given. I will admit to finding the first half of the book a bit slower than the second half. Some parts of it seem to be repeated, but so long as you don't mind that, it's all good. The attraction between Cole and Raven is intense and instantaneous, but Raven doesn't trust it. This book concludes nicely for this part, but also leaves it wide open for the next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more. Most definitely recommended by me.
  
Deep Rising (1998)
Deep Rising (1998)
1998 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
I love me a creature feature!
A wise-cracking boar captain is hired to bring a band of mercenaries out to sea for an unknown mission. He soon finds out there are several large bombs on board his hull. Meanwhile on a nearby large luxury liner, someone has sabotage's the ships instruments so they are now dead in the water. A beautiful thief is also captured and locked in an inner cabin of the ship.

When the small craft arrives, they notice all the ship's crew and passengers have vanishes do the force of an unknown entity. Once they discover what has happened and what is involved, they have to try and escape the now sinking ship quickly to save themselves.

Treat Williams and Famke Janssen lead the pack here of a very entertaining creature feature in the vein of The Relic, Mimic, Phantoms, The Virus or other films of that era.

Very entertaining as long as you don't think much about it or are able to accept the premise and story as is. The SFX are of the time period. Not great by today's standards or even of those like Jurassic Park which was made years earlier. They are not as bad as The Rock in the Scorpion King (man was that awful)!

  
Show all 4 comments.
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Chad Miller (121 KP) Aug 5, 2019

I need to own this. I love Famke and I keep forgetting she is in this!

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Nickg24 (492 KP) Aug 6, 2019

I love that film,havent seen it in a long time.

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Baz Luhrmann recommended War and Peace (1956) in Movies (curated)

 
War and Peace (1956)
War and Peace (1956)
1956 | International, Classics, Drama
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"One of my great all-time loves in cinema, and I’ve seen it three times, is Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. Not a lot of people may have seen that film. It was made during the Soviet era. I’d be happy to see it again — it is, however, 12 hours long. It took 10 years to make, and some actors lived and died during the period of making the movie. It’s a little bit influenced by being a ’60s film, so it’s got a bit of a trippy edge to it; it’s a little bit abstract. But it has some of the finest examples of Russian acting of that era. I was profoundly affected by the Russian theater and the style of Russian acting. It was shot on cameras and film stock that we simply never have access to. If I’m not mistaken, during the opening credits the camera is in a cosmonaut’s space capsule being shot into Earth. It’s probably the biggest crane shot of all time. At first you think, “Well this is going to be tedious,” but stay with it and I think you’ll find yourself drawn in. And the girl who played Natasha [Lyudmila Savelyeva] is a dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn and she’s one of the most luminous stars that ever found herself on the screen."

Source
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2163 KP) rated A Dismal Harvest in Books

Mar 19, 2022 (Updated Mar 19, 2022)  
A Dismal Harvest
A Dismal Harvest
Daisy Bateman | 2022 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Handy Hidey-Hole Hides Homicide
Claudia Simcoe’s marketplace is serving as the host for a library fundraiser when one of the volunteers makes a surprising discovery. There’s a hidden compartment in the wall, and someone has opened it in the middle of the event. Claudia quickly determines that it was Clark Gowan, a local lawyer. In fact, Gowan had been part of the deal when Claudia bought the marketplace. When she goes to confront him the next morning, she discovers his dead body. Did what he took from the compartment lead to his murder?

Having enjoyed the first in the series, I was looking forward to this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. Claudia is a very relatable main character, and she leads a cast of good suspects. I did find the tenants in the marketplace hard to keep straight, but they were background characters, so that was okay. The plot is strong with plenty of pieces to keep us guessing until Claudia puts it all together. I laughed and smiled my way through the book at Claudia’s observations about what was happening. I grew up near the part of Sonoma County, California, where the fictitious San Elmo is located, so I really enjoyed that as well. If you’ve missed this series, fix that today. If you enjoyed the first, you’ll enjoy this one, too.
  
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honingwords (32 KP) rated After Mrs Hamilton in Books

Jul 5, 2018 (Updated Jul 6, 2018)  
After Mrs Hamilton
After Mrs Hamilton
Clare Ashton | 2012 | LGBTQ+
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It’s an absolute masterpiece.
I’m going to go out on a limb here. I think After Mrs Hamilton by Clare Ashton is my all time favourite book.

Ever.

In any genre.

Normally when I recommend a book to a friend I’ll drop it into conversation. If I really like it I’ll send you a link to a review and follow up a few days later with a question on how you got on with it.

With this one I bought you your own copy, cos you ain’t getting mine, I opened it at the beginning and thrust it into your hands, I took your phone off the hook AND I rang your boss to tell her you won’t be in tomorrow morning.

Here’s a duvet for you too - you’ll be under it until the end.

Did I say favourite book?

Of all time.

And quite rightly so. It’s an absolute masterpiece.

This was my Book Club’s book of the month and it was suggested to me at a time when I was becoming jaded with the sheer number of books set in America, which I’d been reading up to then. It opened me up to an author I’d never heard of before, who sets her books in England and Wales. One who has come up with an original plot that starts off gently unfolding, before twisting and turning to a most unpredictable ending.

I absolutely devoured it.

I wanted to re-open it immediately the last page closed, but forced myself to wait using the interim to read Clare Ashton’s other books in quick succession. I had to see if the absolute need to re-immerse myself in her addictive, easy to read, rich in description, style would continue to be as strong. Also, I needed a clear period of time in front of me to allow for the fact the characters would take over my life again.

After over ten years of reading lesfic Clare Ashton is now the one I use to compare all other authors. I’m slightly worried that I can’t decide which of her novels is my favourite, but as this is the first one I read, it probably takes pride of place.

I’d say there are five or six characters to pay attention to but Clo is the main one. The plot revolves around her friends and family but, more specifically, it is woven around a web of coincidences. Coincidences about people who each have secrets and who may have known each other in the past, coincidences about where they lived and met, coincidences about how their pasts and futures may be intertwined.

Coincidences which prove just how small the world really is, especially if you ever lived in Middle Heyford.

Clare deals with two taboo subjects. The first is that Clo works for Marella as an escort to women. (“Prostitution. You can call it what it is,” says Clo.) She uses the income to allow her to care for her arthritic grandmother Amelia.

The second taboo subject I will let you find out for yourself, but for the record, I am not squeamish about it and think Clare was extremely brave to include it. I found myself nodding along with Clo’s reaction.

The novel begins with Marella interviewing her new client, Mrs Hamilton. Marella is the lynch pin to everything, yet we learn little about her throughout the book and she isn’t in many scenes. She is vitally important; there would be no story without her, yet Clare manages to allow Marella to stay mainly in the shadows. I would very much like to see future stories with her in them and think it is a huge shame Clare has no plans to visit this storyline again.

Clo knows Laura from university and Susan from living in Middle Heyford. Clo’s grandmother Amelia is the mother of Alice who has a special page all to herself in my imaginary book “People I’d Like To Punch In The Face” and Helen is Susan’s dead Mother’s sister. The intricate relationships between the characters are all explained as you go along but it is difficult to keep them all straight in your head, unless you either pay very good attention, or draw an L Word type chart for them, which is what I ended up doing.

Mrs Hamilton tells us she is fifty-four and throughout the book Clare refers to her, and certainly Mrs Hamilton thinks of herself, as an older woman. Clo meets with her professionally at the beginning and it is their mutual attraction which is explored throughout the rest of the book. There is an age difference there but it is not an issue for either of them.

There is a little part of me which wants to rebel against the idea that fifty-four is old though, and I wonder now that since the publication of the book was in 2012, and Clare is five years closer to Mrs Hamilton’s age now, would she still consider fifty-four year old skin to be ageing and mottled?

On that point, with me coming along five years after publication, I have to say there is nothing in the novel to date it. It is as fresh today as it would have been back then. Five years isn't long enough to notice too much, but I’m going to predict that readers in another twenty years will be saying this novel is ‘timeless.’

By necessity, there are a few back stories to wade through - the two main sets of characters could, possibly, have been dealt with in two books instead of one. At 308 pages this is a fairly long book, at the beginning it flows a tad more slowly than in the later chapters, but I’m sticking with my first impressions on it, and I wouldn’t have wanted Clare to have handled it any other way.

I like all the main characters. Amelia is so important to Clo and I am relieved when she returns home after a trip away and want to hug her! I like Laura, but feel she may be a high maintenance friend! I think Susan and I would be friends in real life. Clo’s father, Edward is a frustrating coward of a man, but is in an important scene with Clo’s lover and I melted a little towards him when she blurts out “I’m in love with your daughter’” and he says “Well I had gathered that.” Other than Clare’s well-written sex scenes this, and the few paragraphs leading up to it, would be my favourite part of the book.

One character has to deal with what I would suggest is a ‘betrayal by omission’ - others, those closest to her, know facts about her but don’t let her in on the secret. When it all comes out she seems able to accept this, after only a very short time adjusting. This isn't something I could have coped with and this is the one thing that made me uncomfortable during the book and the time mulling it over immediately after.

There are three points in this story when I spoke out loud. There was an

Oh!

A

Huh!

And finally an

OH MY GOD!

There is a split at the end - one side gets their happily ever after and the other story is one where we are left with a total absence of a conclusion. It was about a day later before I realised I didn’t know what happened with that story line and had to go back and reread the ending! Yup, there is nothing - we are left to make our own minds up!

Clare has been known to say that she is in denial about her breast obsession, but there are no fewer than 50 times the word ‘breast’ is used in this book and I loved every single one of them! I’m hoping she continues to not have any breast obsession in her future work!

After finishing the book the first time I added a category to help me rate books I am reviewing. I added “Should this be made into a film?” because it was a most definite YES! for After Mrs Hamilton.

The second time round I am about to add another category: Would I cherish a signed copy of this book? Errr YES!

My advice is to read this once. Then, with the knowledge you have at the end, go and read it again. Clare has so many clues and references cleverly placed throughout which you may think are just lovely details at the time, but they are actually very important to being able to fully understand the book.

It’s nearly impossible to sleep until this story is fully unravelled. Read it during a weekend when you have no work to worry about because otherwise you will want to pull a sickie.
  
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Lizz Cook (11 KP) Jul 6, 2018

Wow. You make me yearn for the feelings you got from this read. You are a wonderful writer.

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honingwords (32 KP) Jul 6, 2018

Thank you Lizz, you are very kind :)

TG
The Girl Who Stayed
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Zoe returns to her hometown of Sullivan's Island with one goal in mind: repair her childhood home and sell it, so she never has to come back. Her parents are dead, her brother doesn't want it, and her little sister, Hannah, disappeared from the Island when Hannah was eight and Zoe was ten. At the time, Hannah's friend, Gabi, insinuated that Zoe was responsible for Hannah's disappearance and while she knows it isn't true, Zoe has always felt confused and remorseful about her behavior during the time period when Hannah vanished. Even worse, she grew up under the doubt of her parents, especially her angry father, who seemed to believe Gabi, and with whom Zoe had a rough and rocky relationship as she aged.

This was an interesting book and I confess it had the misfortune of being read during a crazy time for me of illness and work: not its fault. Zoe is a tough character to crack at first, but she's also a victim of abuse, and her slowness to reveal herself--in the book and to others--makes sense. Crosby does a good job of displaying (versus telling) how Zoe's relationship with her parents has formed her into the adult she is today. What I enjoyed is that Zoe is a complicated individual with many layers. I've read too many books lately where a character had a bad childhood or suffered some form of abuse and that seems to be a reason to make them have only one character trait, which they must act upon, with no sign of reason. Zoe is nuanced, even if she takes some time to warm up to.

There are several scenes in the book that are nearly heartbreaking as you read. For instance, when Zoe finds a projector and a bunch of film belonging to her grandfather and manages to splice together enough film to capture a few moments of her late sister as a kid. As she describes the moment, it's powerful, and you can completely picture it. In another scene, she reminisces about how her mother "helped" her fix up Zoe's bathing suit before a first date--an event that ended poorly. This moment is not only formed so clearly, but says so much about how Zoe continued to relate to her Mom. It's very well-done.

The book spends most of its time focusing on Zoe's late second coming of age story (at nearly 40), with a few characters from Sullivan's Island thrown in, but there is a subplot to Hannah's disappearance that picks up pace near the end. The very end of the story felt a little rushed (though exciting). I'm still a bit torn about the actual ending--it sort of pissed me off--but I understand Crosby's choices.

In writing this review, I'd probably push my rating up to a 3.75 stars. It's a different book, and I enjoyed Zoe. I almost wish I could encounter her again.

I received an ARC of this book from Edelweiss - thank you! It is available for publication on 4/19/16. You can find a review this novel and many more at my <a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">blog</a>;.
  
A Deadly Éclair (A French Bistro Mystery, #1)
A Deadly Éclair (A French Bistro Mystery, #1)
Daryl Wood Gerber | 2017 | Mystery
10
8.8 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Mimi Rousseau is just months into her new venture of a French bistro and hotel in the heart of Napa County. This weekend, she is hosting her first event, the wedding of Angelica Edmonton, noted TV talk show host and the niece of Bryan Baker, Mimi’s benefactor and mentor. However, when tension at the pre-wedding dinner on Friday night leads to a dead body on Saturday morning, Mimi finds herself looking into the murder. What is going on?

It’s fun to find a series set in Napa County that doesn’t focus on wine, although wine is certainly present. The French food will definitely leave your mouth watering as you work your way through this good first mystery. The initial chapter has a bit of a data dump in it, but once beyond that, the mystery picks up and the pace never slows down again. The characters are outstanding, and the relationships between the series regulars is already strong. I’m looking forward to seeing that grow as the series progresses.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-review-deadly-eclair-by-daryl-wood.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.